Terms and conditions of use
Basket of flowers, scent bottle
(1740)
- Medium
- porcelain (soft-paste), gilt-metal
- Measurements
- 5.7 × 4.5 × 4.0 cm
- Place/s of Execution
- London, England
- Accession Number
- 2024.353
- Department
- International Decorative Arts
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Patricia Begg OAM Bequest, 2024
© Public Domain - Gallery location
- Not on display
- About this work
-
These miniature bottles were containers for ladies’ perfume and would most likely have sat on the dressing table as part of the toilette service. Conceived to delight, some were made by the Chelsea manufactory but most were produced by the short-lived St James’s Porcelain Factory, run by the jeweller Charles Gouyn, who had been a partner in the Chelsea factory before starting his own business. Gouyn’s factory was the first to produce such miniature scent bottles, known as ‘toys’ in the eighteenth century, as well as bodkin cases and other similar personal trinkets. Large numbers of scent bottles were exported to continental Europe; hinged and fitted leather travelling cases have also survived for some bottles.